Process

Finnish algae company looking to Brazil and Middle East

uctor, a Finnish biotechnology company specializing in innovative algae technologies, is currently participating in an export promotions trip to Brazil. The business delegation is led by Jan Vapaavuori, the Minister of Economic Affairs for the Ministry of Employment and the Economy of Finland. Finnish companies among the business delegation include various potential co-operation sectors such as Renewable Energy, Offshore Cluster and Mining Industry. Ductor is represented by its CEO and Chairman, Ari Ketola.

“Finland is known as a modern European country with a stable financial performance and leading know-how,” says Ketola. “Ductor has innovated a revolutionary algae technology, one of the most promising new technologies, which has global demand and appeal through the various applications in renewable energy, organic farming, and recycling.

“We are extremely pleased to be able to join this government-led delegation, as ministerial level support is very valuable in opening doors, accelerating introductions to potential partners, customers and other key decision makers. For a young company such support is indeed extremely important and appreciated.”

Ketola acknowledges that Brazil has huge natural resources and an outstanding potential to become one of the economic success stories in the world. “In the renewable energy and organic farming sectors, Ductor is now in the process of actively creating a group of companies that can help commercialize its technology in Brazil and globally,” he says.

Ductor’s meetings in Brazil include Embrapa Bioenergy Research Institute, Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI), Brazilian National Confederation of Industry (CNI), National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels, Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), Petrobras Research Center (CENPES), VTT Brazil and Sugarcane Research Center (CTC).

Ductor, a finalist for the prestigious 2013 Red Herring Top 100 Europe award honoring the year’s most promising private technology ventures, also recently participated in an export promotions trip to Qatar and the UAE (United Arab Emirates) with a business delegation led by Jyrki Katainen, Prime Minister of Finland, and Alexander Stubb, Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade. Around 30 Finnish companies were among the participants representing skills and know-how in various sectors including high-tech, education, health, sustainable environment and mobile/telecoms.

As part of the business delegation, Ductor’s meetings during the trip included Qatar Science and Technology Park, Qatar National Research Fund and Qatar Petroleum as well as other Qatari energy companies. In UAE/Dubai, Ductor met with representatives from the Dubai Municipality including Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, as well the Minister of Energy and Minister of Public Works. All meetings were led by Jyrki Katainen, the Prime Minister of Finland.

Ductor Corp. is currently looking for candidate partners to license its technology to produce green crude from algae or fertilizers from 100% biologically produced ammonia & phosphates, and is working towards forming a coalition of companies that will own the technologies as well as commercialize them globally.